I'm not quite sure how to write about Gary. He was just about my best friend, if such a thing exists.
He really was the consummate professional. He was a ship driver before his pilots' course, and had a patrol boat command. He duxed his pilots' course, and was somewhat peeved not to be posted to the A-4. Vagaries of the postings, but he would have done well there. But he went to the Tracker world, where his crews thought the world of him (had a chat to one of his Taccos this afternoon). We did the RAAF instructors' course together, and he was my boss for my first year at Pt Cook. Then he went back to world of ships, where he was XO on HMAS Jervis Bay. From there he went back to flying as staff at CFS. I'd joined QF by this time, and was trying to talk him into joining me, but he chose the National Safety Council instead. Whilst this ultimately proved to be a bad move, he greatly enjoyed the sort of flying he got there. Eventually he followed me to QF, but by then things had slowed down somewhat, which meant that I got a command years ahead of him. And that meant he was often rostered with me as my FO. And that was always fun. Command came his way on the 767, and he enjoyed that until the aircraft retired. He wasn't senior enough to get a 330/747/380 command, so chose to head to the 380 as an FO. He didn't love the French lady, but I was able to enjoy a trip with him there. Age was starting to catch up, so he made the move to the 737 to both regain his command, and to enable staying beyond 65.
Whilst all of this QF stuff was happening, he was an avid flyer in the GA world, and had a number of businesses there. He was endorsed by CASA in just about everything, and spent a lot of time teaching others how to instruct and test.
In a career as long as mine, not many trips really stand out. It's funny that many that do, involve Gaz.
We often say people will be greatly missed....but in his case it's true.